http://museum-security.org/
securma@xs4all.nl

May 5, 1998

CONTENTS:

- Elton John among victims of Man Ray photographs fraud

- Treasure hunter closes on legendary Nazi loot; Mystery of the lost amber (Sunday Times)

- Can you help?

- Alisha Alderson's request

- Thieves plundering cradle of civilization (The Miami Herald)

- German quarry scoured for lost Tsarist treasure (Reuters Limited)

- stolen artwork story (Moespurr@aol.com)

- Robbing the Cradle or Saving Artifacts? (dshinn@neo.lrun.com)

- call for papers, "Deceit, Deception & Discovery: Fakes in the Museum and the Marketplace", LYNN PRODEN 15603@UDel.Edu

- PARK ADVOCATES URGE CLINTON TO VETO ANOTHER "PAVE THE PARKS" RIDER

- THE LOOTING OF ITALY; THE CASE OF THE GOLDEN PHIALE

- Looting Dispute Artfully Resolved; Museum benefits from deal allowing exquisite works by Italian masters to be shown in America.

- The Fake van Gogh (js0066@snyflcaa.fingerlakes.edu)

- United States v. Spiegelman (fwd), Claudia Funke ccf6@columbia.edu

- 4,000 library books stolen from garage (By Ann Belser, Post-Gazette Staff Writer)

- TRIBUTES IN DISTRESS; S.F.'s venerable works of art are in serious need of repair

- Famed Florida treasure hunter's coins called fakes (By Ben Iannotta)

- The Denney Paper has been updated and is available at: http://museum-security.org/denney.html

- New Art and Law Web Site of interest to Museum staff (antonya@antonya.ace.co.uk)

- Painting stolen from Louvre; The painting was cut from its frame

- Theft of statue of Helen Keller stumps police (Cleveland)

- illicit art trade

- Electrical Fires (firesafe@middlebury.net)

- Re: -stolen artwork story (wsisson@worldnet.att.net)

- The Louvre robbed again; this time of an Impressionist (do not get scared: this report is additional to the one we sent to the MSN list yesterday)

- Gates buys Homer painting for $30 million (San Jose Mercury News)

- Armenia hands back Soviet army war booty to Germany



Elton John among victims of Man Ray photographs fraud

By Susannah Herbert in Paris
(http://www.manraytrust.com/ Man Ray official site - Man Ray Trust)
THE identification of a large number of fake photographs purporting to be by the American surrealist Man Ray has thrown collectors and gallery owners into turmoil. The singer Elton John is thought to be a victim of the fraud, which has come to light on the eve of the biggest exhibition of Ray's photographic work, at the Grand Palais in Paris. "Man Ray, la photogràphie l'envers", which opens next Wednesday, includes three versions of his celebrated Tears, a close-up of a woman's face with eight pearls of celluloid on her cheeks, thought to have been made around 1930. It does not, however, include a fourth version acquired by Elton John from Sotheby's in 1993 for more than £122,000, a print taken from a negative never used by Ray which experts believe may have been made without his permission and possibly after his death in 1976. The John photograph, which is not cropped in the usual Ray style and bears notes on the back in an unknown hand, is only one of many Rays whose value has recently been called into question. Almost 80 of the others, including five other variants of Tears, were bought by a German collector, Werner Bokelberg, for more than £1 million between 1994 and 1996. Mr Bokelberg acquired the Rays from the dealer Benjamin Walter, believing them to be prints made in the 1920s and 1930s. Analysis of the paper revealed that most were made in the 1970s and at least 20 were printed on a paper commercialised only between 1992 and 1994. Experts now suspect that the fakers got hold of a batch of Man Ray negatives, including ones rejected by the artist as unsuitable, and simply ran off new prints without paying much attention to Ray's practice of cropping and retouching his work. The case is now being investigated by French fraud squad. Alain Sayag, curator of the Grand Palais show said: "The Bokelberg fakes were very badly done. Whoever did them didn't understand how Man Ray worked. The problem is that Ray didn't protect himself, but gave duplicates of many of his negatives to private labs in the 1960s. It means we have to be very careful to examine paper quality and authenticity. It's always tricky when the market shoots up but knowledge lags behind."
(Daily Telegraph London)

Treasure hunter closes on legendary Nazi loot; Mystery of the lost amber (Sunday Times)

by Michael Woodhead Deutsch-Neudorf
FOR more than 50 years, archeologists and adventurers have searched for the fabulous treasures of the Amber Room, seized by the Nazis from the former palace of Catherine the Great near St Petersburg during the second world war. Now, a German engineer who has devoted a decade to the hunt believes he is about to unearth the 18th-century amber panels encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. A team of experts led by Helmut Gaensel, 63, has begun to clear rubble from around the entrance to a disused silver mine near Deutsch-Neudorf, a tiny village deep in the Bohemian forest near Germany's border with the Czech Republic. Gaensel says he has compiled enough evidence from witnesses to be "90% certain" that the panels, once described by a British ambassador as the eighth wonder of the world and worth an estimated £100m intact, were buried in the Nicolai Stollen mine as Hitler's forces retreated in the face of the Russian advance at the end of the war. "The mines are a perfect hiding place. The rock means there is no fear of shafts collapsing over time," said Gaensel, who has been authorised by the Czech government to carry out the search. "The temperature is constant and there is little risk of flooding." Archeologists from both sides of the former Iron Curtain hunted relentlessly during the post-war years for the Amber Room, which was built as Frederick the Great's study at Königsberg Castle in East Prussia in 1711, but given five years later to Tsar Peter the Great of Russia to commemorate their countries' grand alliance against Sweden. Its panels, exquisitely carved in bas relief and framed in scrolled and gilded wood, were eventually installed by Catherine the Great in her palace at Tsarskoye Selo, where experts are using faded black-and-white photographs taken in the 1930s to recreate it. "The entire room was a gigantic piece of jewellery," said Alexander Krylov, a Russian art expert involved in the restoration. After Hitler personally ordered their retrieval, the panels and other artefacts were packed into 72 crates and returned in triumph to Königsberg Castle. In 1945, however, Erich Koch, the governor of East Prussia, was determined to prevent the panels from falling into Russian hands. He had them loaded into trucks, apparently destined for his home town of Weimar. Their subsequent disappearance has remained a mystery ever since. Gaensel, who worked for years in the former Czechoslovakia, became fascinated with the search in the 1980s. "I started to collect evidence but didn't have much trust in what I discovered," he said. "There were just so many stories of what happened to the room." Last year, however, a mosaic panel turned up in the hands of an eastern German lawyer, who said his father had brought it back from the Russian front. A furniture restorer in the former East German city of Leipzig then admitted he had worked on a commode from the Amber Room during the communist era. In recent months, evidence from villagers in Deutsch-Neudorf and wartime documents provided by the mayor and his counterpart in Katharinaberg - on the Czech side of the border - have persuaded Gaensel his long quest may soon be over. According to witnesses' accounts, two military convoys arrived in Deutsch-Neudorf in April 1945 as the Red Army advanced through Poland. The first contained bodyguards of Herman Goering, apparently carrying looted works of art. They were followed by the Potsdam-based Brandenburger regiment, specialists in sabotage and demolition, and the 2nd SS Panzer division. "The troops stayed for two days unloading several long rectangular crates and then left," said Gaensel. The most startling evidence has come from the son of a Waffen SS officer who was in command of the convoy. Heinrich Peter Haustein, the mayor of Deutsch-Neudorf, said the man, who wants his identity kept secret, claimed lorries loaded with panels from the Amber Room were driven from Berlin so that the treasures could be hidden in the mine. "According to all the eye-witnesses still alive today, the SS troops were the ones who brought the Amber Room with them packed in cases on board four lorries," said Haustein, who travelled to Berlin last week to pursue his inquiries. Deutsch-Neudorf and the surrounding area are undoubtedly suitable for such an operation. The village can be reached only by a single road, which, even today, is in places no more than a rough and twisting cobblestone track cut into the steep hillside. The remoteness of the site would have given the SS valuable time to complete their task at a time when Germany was on the verge of capitulation. Gaensel, who has raised £300,000 for his operation, has long been accustomed to the assortment of cash-strapped adventurers, dream merchants and idle rich who are drawn to the hunt for treasure, and says he is inured to misinformation, rumour and fantasy. "It's a game to test your patience to the limit. All the time you must look and look and work like crazy," he said. "There is only one Amber Room, and history will record the name of the one man who found it. That man is going to be me." If Gaensel is right, he will not only become famous but rich: the Czech government has promised him 20% of the room's value.

From: "Alisha Alderson" securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

Can you help?

Having been a lurker on this list for awhile now, I first want to say how much I appreciate it's existance. Secondly, I'm hopeful that someone might be able to help me with some information. I'm a junior in college, designing (or at least attempting to) my own degree in descriptive archaeology. After graduation, I'd like to apply this toward working in a museum, helping to design exhibits. I'm also blind, and have a great desire to expand traditional exhibits so that others with disabilities can enjoy them more. Does anyone know where I might begin to look? Are there any museums with strong internships? In or out of the States, it makes no difference. I can say, though, that I'm especially interested in any possibilities that might be in Canada.
Any help would be appreciated. Please reply privately to Alisha Alderson at alidrien@earthlink.net, or of course, to the list if it is of interest or use to others. Thank you for the opportunity to post these questions.
Sincerely,
Alisha Alderson
Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how it remains so popular?

- Alisha Alderson's request

Date sent: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 13:26:59 -0400
From: Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania frm@redrose.net
Alisha,
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania received your request on the Museum Security Mailing List, and we wish to send you information on our facility.
Sincerely,
George Deeming Curator
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
P.O. Box 15
Strasburg PA 17579

From: "Nancy Parrish" nparrish@rockhall.org
Dear Alisha:
I recommend George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and the University of Toronto in Toronto (it has been so long since I applied, I think they still have a Museum Studies program). Also, try Northwestern University - they may have something. There's also the University of Delaware but I don't know what they offer through their program.
Nancy

Thieves plundering cradle of civilization (The Miami Herald)

By BARBARA DEMICK
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BABYLON -- It was no ordinary theft. The burglars knew exactly what they were looking for and how to get it. They came around noon, as the guards were changing shift. They smashed the museum doors and a display case, absconding with cuneiform tablets and cylinders from the 6th Century B.C. They left behind gold jewelry that might have tempted amateurs. If there is any doubt that Iraq is skidding into a long downward spiral, the proof can be found here in Babylon, one of the oldest cities known. Opportunistic criminals are taking advantage of the poverty and lawlessness that prevails in today's Iraq to steal that which is most precious to this country -- its glorious past. Quite literally, they are robbing from the cradle of civilization. Babylon today is a forlorn tourist site near the banks of the Euphrates River, 50 miles southwest of Baghdad. It is built around the mustard-brick remains of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C.), the Mesopotamian ruler of ancient Babylonia who earned dubious repute in the Bible for conquering Jerusalem and deporting its kings. Although President Saddam Hussein ordered the palace restored a decade ago, few tourists come here anymore, for there is little to see. All that remains of the statuary and antiquities that once filled the palace grounds is a black basalt lioness, basking alone in the sunshine. The museum is now closed -- a security measure ordered in the aftermath of the April 1996 robbery. Its contents have been moved to Baghdad for safekeeping. ``There's nothing to see in there. Just the walls,'' a guide, Rabha Ameedi, said as he shuffled past the padlocked doors of the Babylon Museum. Muayed Said Damerji, Iraq's director general of antiquities, says the Babylon case remains unsolved. ``We can only guess. These cases usually start with a poor, simple peasant or Beduouin, but they are organized by people who know exactly what they're looking for. Eventually, these antiquities will end up in an art gallery in London or New York, but they haven't surfaced yet,'' said Damerji. Throughout Iraq, museums have been closed in an effort to stop the hemhorrhaging of antiquities. Catalogs published in London document 5,000 objects stolen or destroyed since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and authorities here say there are hundreds of new cases every month. The thieves are highly motivated because the average wage in Iraq, crippled by economic sanctions, is $2 a month. A small tablet or seal with cuneiform writing can fetch up to $2,000 in London or New York. The thefts are spectacular and violent. At the museum in Nasiriya, in southeastern Iraq near the ancient city of Ur, believed to be the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham, a policeman was injured and a guard killed by gun-toting antiquities thieves. In Khorasbad, in northern Iraq, thieves dressed in military uniforms sealed off a room containing the statue of a massive Assyrian winged bull dating from 700 B.C. They hacked off the head and proceeded to carve it into 11 pieces that they hoped to smuggle out of the country. Ten people were caught and executed last year for their role in the robbery. Despite such harsh justice, it is almost impossible for Iraq to stop the thefts. There are 10,000 archaeological sites scattered through the country, most of them not fully excavated. According to archaeologists, gang leaders sometimes drive through provincial towns with trucks and shovels, recruiting people to dig for antiquities at poorly guarded sites. ``We can't possibly have guards at all these sites and we can't go out and inspect them all,'' Damerji complained. ``We used to do it more often. We used to have 500 cars assigned to the department. Now we have only seven and they're always breaking down.'' The looting began in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War, when 14 of 18 governates, as Iraq's provinces are known, rose in rebellion against the regime of Saddam Hussein. In the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, and the southern area populated by restless Shiite Muslims, most of the provincial museums were ransacked. The Iraqi government also complained that American soldiers had hacked off pieces of the Ziggurat at Ur. According to Damerji, the U.S. Army confiscated some of the pieces and returned to the Iraqis a box with 19 stolen pieces. Iraqi authorities charge -- and their accusations are backed up by some archaeologists abroad -- that sometimes antiquities are smuggled out by diplomats and U.N. relief workers. Last summer, a landlord was cleaning a Baghdad villa that had been recently vacated by a diplomat. Inside, he found two cartons of archaeological fragments. The Iraqi government hasn't named the diplomat or his country. Even when a culprit is identified, or pilfered objects located abroad, it doesn't mean they will be automatically returned. Since 1996, the Iraqi government has been pursuing a lawsuit to recover from a London art gallery Assyrian reliefs stolen from the throne room of a palace in ancient Ninevah. The case appears to be airtight: John Russell, a Columbia University archaeologist and art historian, had photographed the reliefs in 1990 in Nivevah and recognized them when they surfaced on the art market. ``We know we'll eventually get these back. We have the evidence,'' Damerji said. Nicholas Postgate, an archaeologist with Cambridge University and a contributor to Lost Heritage, the catalogue of stolen Iraqi antiquities, said archaeologists in the United States and England are trying to help raise awareness of the problem. ``The better antiquities dealers won't handle anything that might be stolen, but there are sleazy dealers out there, too,'' Postgate said. ``And there is a feeling that when it comes to Iraq, it is fair game. They don't have to feel sorry for the Iraqis.'' At the same time, the Iraqi leader has come under sharp criticism for insensitivity to Iraq's heritage, especially in Babylon. As part of a controversial series of restorations in the late 1980s, new bricks were piled atop the remains of Nebuchadnezzar's palace with inscriptions that read: ``In the era of the victorious Saddam Hussein, the protector of greater Iraq and the restorer of its civilization, this city was rebuilt once again.'' Looming above Nebuchadnezzar's palace on a man-made hill called ``Saddam Hill'' is a new palace that is supposed to be a private residence for the Iraqi leader. He has never stayed there.

German quarry scoured for lost Tsarist treasure (Reuters Limited)

11:14 a.m. Apr 29, 1998 Eastern
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - A search team scoured a quarry in southern Germany Wednesday for traces of the Amber Chamber, a priceless Tsarist treasure which vanished after being looted by the Nazis during World War Two. The chamber, last sighted in 1945, is an assembly of ornately carved amber wall panels and furniture presented to the tsars by Prussia in 1712. It tops Russia's list of missing treasures stolen during the war by German troops. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Bonn said it had evidence of what could be a store of treasure that had been hastily buried in a quarry close to the southern city of Coburg by a high-ranking Nazi in the final days of the war. ``We have serious clues of some form of art treasure. But, as you know, the Amber Chamber has proved elusive,'' he said. A notary's office in the northern port of Bremen caused a sensation last May when it handed over a mosaic which investigators were convinced was part of the chamber. Since then, however, the trail appears to have gone cold. The Amber Chamber was kept in the imperial Catherine Palace outside St. Petersburg, then Leningrad, before being dismantled and removed by German troops in 1941. It was last seen in Koenigsberg, formerly the capital of the pre-war German province of East Prussia, just before the German retreat in 1945. It was renamed Kalingrad and is today a Russian enclave between Poland and the Baltic states. If ever found, the chamber is likely to feature prominently in a continuing dispute between Germany and Russia over art treasures looted by each others soldiers during World War Two.

From: Moespurr Moespurr@aol.com
Date sent: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 22:27:28 EDT
To: securma@museum-security.org
Subject:

stolen artwork story (Moespurr@aol.com)

Hello:
I am a reporter in Illinois (U.S.A.) doing a story on stolen artwork that resurfaced and is now being held on display in a museum. They won't give the art back to the rightful owner. I'm not sure if you can help me, but I would like to talk to contacts regarding the insurance policies on art, art theft, what happens if the claim is paid to the person and then the art reappears. I realize that the U.S. might be different regarding the laws, but do you know anyone I can talk to? Another note: The owner of the painting found in the museum may wish to get help in recovering the stolen piece. Do you have advice? Any information/help/contact people in this type of case you can give would be great!
Thank you!
Maureen Spurr
800-533-9734; 847-256-7111 Work

Date sent: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 19:22:24 +0000
From: "Dorothy G. Shinn" dshinn@neo.lrun.com
To: Museum Security Mailinglist securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

Robbing the Cradle or Saving Artifacts? (dshinn@neo.lrun.com)

Regarding your most recent posting, "Thieves Plundering the Cradle of Civilization," I have an inquiry. I was recently shown a large group of clay tablets, cylinder seals, bowls and other artifacts for sale that were represented as having been "rescued" from Iraq because they are being "thrown away" because they are ancient Hebrew artifacts and as such are regarded as "propaganda" by the Iraquis. Has anyone on the MSN listserv heard of this? -- DShinn

call for papers, LYNN PRODEN 15603@UDel.Edu Please help to distribute this message to your web site readers.

CALL FOR PAPERS
"Deceit, Deception & Discovery: Fakes in the Museum and the Marketplace" Two years ago the Decorative Arts Society and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library collaborated on a one-day symposium--"New Visions, New Quests"--that highlighted groundbreaking scholarship in the decorative arts of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. On December 5, 1998, the two institutions will again sponsor a decorative arts conference at Winterthur. This year's topic focuses on Fakes and Forgeries within the art and antiques world. Long a favorite of collectors and museum-goers, the subject has its own rich bibliography replete with such wonderful descriptive titles as "Fabulous by Fake" and "Assume Nothing." We seek new discoveries in this important field from curators, conservators, and craftsmen; academics, educators, and students; antiques dealers, auctioneers, appraisers, and collectors--in short, anyone involved in the study of decorative or fine arts. Our scope included materials made in America or Europe and dating between 1640 to the present. We encourage proposals that reveal the reasons behind a particular deception as well as the skill of the deception itself. In addition, we urge individuals to share the excitement of discovery sparked by the study of a fake as well as the revelations gleaned about authentic objects through that study. Please submit a one-page abstract of your paper to Brock Jobe, Department of Collections, Conservation, and Interpretation, Winterthur, Delaware 19735 (fax number 302.888.4700). In addition, attach to the proposal your summer address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Stipends will be awarded to everyone presenting papers at the conference. The deadline for proposals is July 1, 1998.

From: NPCA npca@npca.org

PARK ADVOCATES URGE CLINTON TO VETO ANOTHER "PAVE THE PARKS" RIDER

Congress Again Tries to Add Anti-environmental Measures to Emergency Funding Washington, D.C. -- The nation's leading national park advocacy group today urged President Clinton to veto an emergency funding bill because it includes a controversial provision to build a six-lane commuter highway across Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico. The National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) says the measure would undermine the protection of all national parks, and is reminiscent of efforts last year to sneak a "pave the parks" provision through on the coattails of a popular and much-needed disaster relief measure. Three other anti-environmental riders also were added to the bill. One provision would interfere with the Forest Service's proposal for a "time out" on road construction, and attempt to encourage more subsidized logging in roadless areas within national forests. Other measures would promote development along Florida coastal barrier islands, and hobble federal regulators' efforts to evaluate oil royalty fees. President Clinton has objected to the environmental riders as extraneous amendments that should be dropped from the bill. "President Clinton did the right thing last year when he defied Congress and promised to veto flood relief if it came at the expense of our parks, forests and wilderness areas," said NPCA President Tom Kiernan. "He should do the right thing again this year and make Congress back down on its efforts to pave our parks." The House today will consider a final version of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill to provide funding for disaster relief, veterans' benefits, and military operations in Bosnia and Iraq. House and Senate negotiators this week included in the bill an amendment by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) to delete 8.5 acres from Petroglyph National Monument, a national park unit near Albuquerque, in order to facilitate the city's construction of a six-lane commuter highway to undeveloped land west of the monument. The Domenici amendment was accepted by the House members of the committee on a 7-6 vote. Voting for the "pave the parks" amendment were: Voting against the amendment were: * Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA) * Rep. Sidney Yates (D-IL) * Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) * Rep. David Obey (D-WI) * Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH) * Rep. Martin Sabo (D-MN) * Rep. Ron Packard (R-CA) * Rep. Vic Fazio (D-CA) * Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) * Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) * Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) * Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) * Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-AL)
Reps. John Porter (R-IL) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) missed the formal vote but indicated their objection to the amendment. Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM) also missed the vote but indicated his support for the road.
During consideration of last year's emergency spending bill featuring flood relief funding for the Midwest, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) attached his "pave the parks" rider. It would have allowed states, counties, and even individuals the right to assert rights-of-way claims and build roads on public lands -- including national parks -- under R.S. 2477, an obscure provision of the Mining Act of 1866. President Clinton's veto of the bill forced the removal of the damaging provision. NPCA has led a national effort to defeat Senator Domenici's road provision, citing both damage to the monument's sacred Indian artifacts and the precedent of deleting lands from a national park to encourage urban sprawl. Opponents of the road include Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca, New Mexico Native American groups, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, and a number of national non-profit organizations representing public lands protection, historic preservation and Native American rights. "If the current version of the bill becomes law, a major portion of Petroglyph National Monument will be dramatically degraded by an unnecessary new highway," Kiernan said. "Even worse, all other parks and public lands would be exposed to a dangerous and damaging precedent that puts commuter convenience before resource protection." Petroglyph National Monument was established in 1990 to preserve more than 17,000 Native American religious rock images that date from 1000 B.C. to 1650 A.D. The monument is considered a sacred site by New Mexico Indian Pueblos and other Native Americans. By removing the land from the monument, the legislation would enable the City of Albuquerque to circumvent laws preventing the building of unnecessary roads on National Park Service lands. The National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) is America's only private nonprofit citizen organization dedicated solely to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park System. An association of "Citizens Protecting America's Parks," NPCA was founded in 1919 and today has nearly 500,000 members. A library of national park information, including fact sheets, congressional testimony, position statements, press releases and media alerts, can be found on NPCA's World Wide Web site at
National Parks and Conservation Association
http://www.npca.org
E-mail: npca@npca.org

THE LOOTING OF ITALY; THE CASE OF THE GOLDEN PHIALE

BY ANDREW L. SLAYMAN
Sometime between 1976 and 1980, a fourth-century B.C. gold phiale (libation bowl), decorated with acorns, beechnuts, and bees, surfaced in the collection of a Sicilian named Vincenzo Pappalardo. In 1980, Pappalardo traded it to a Sicilian coin dealer named Vincenzo Cammarata for artworks worth $20,000. In 1991, Cammarata traded it to an expatriate Hungarian coin dealer named William Veres for artworks worth $90,000. Through a New York antiquities dealer named Robert Haber, Veres sold it to an American multimillionaire named Michael Steinhardt--the purchase price, $1.2 million. Sometime between 1991 and 1995, the Italian authorities discovered the transaction, which violated an Italian law regulating the exportation of antiquities. In 1995 they asked the U.S. for help getting the phiale back, and the Customs Service seized it. In November 1997, a federal judge ruled that it be returned to Italy, but Steinhardt is appealing and it will stay at the Customhouse until the lawsuit is resolved. Several museum associations have filed a brief supporting Steinhardt's position, while the Archaeological Institute of America has filed one supporting the government's position. The phiale has a near twin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was purchased in 1962 from the well-known antiquities dealer Robert E. Hecht, Jr.

THE MORGANTINA HOARD

Fifteen silver vessels at the Metropolitan Museum of Art may have been looted from the site of Morgantina, Sicily. Archaeologist Malcolm Bell, who directs American excavations at Morgantina, gives his account of the hoard's discovery and the subsequent investigation. A recent article in the Boston Globe named the dealer who had sold the Morgantina hoard to the Metropolitan as Robert E. Hecht, Jr.--the same person who had sold them the gold phiale in 1962 and the famous Euphronios krater in 1972. The article also named the purchase price as $2.74 million and said that Italian authorities had interviewed the looters who had found the treasure.

ITALY FIGHTS BACK

According to Italian law, all antiquities are the property of the government and may not be privately owned or exported. Nonetheless, rings of tombaroli (grave robbers) and antiquities smugglers flourish. Italian authorities are fighting this plague with aggressive enforcement, both at home and abroad. In 1996, Swiss police working with the Carabinieri, Italy's national police force, raided four bonded warehouses in Geneva containing 10,000 artifacts smuggled from Italy and valued at about $35 million--one of the largest antiquities seizures ever. In the past year and a half, the United States has returned to Italy a Roman torso of Artemis, a set of Etruscan pottery, and two stone capitals. In many cases, however, it is impossible to prove that artifacts come from a particular country. The Cultural Property Implementation Act (by which the U.S. ratified the 1970 UNESCO convention) authorizes the federal government to ban the importation of entire categories of archaeological material, relieving the source country of the burden of proving that each artifact was excavated and exported illegally. Italy expects to be ready with its request for such a ban later this year. The Italian government could do more, allowing longer-term loans of artifacts to museums abroad; museums, for their part, should refrain from acquiring unprovenienced antiquities. Archaeologists could cultivate better relations with locals in areas where they excavate, encouraging them not to collaborate with looters. For 68 pictures of artifacts seized in Geneva, see "Geneva Seizure," coming soon from ARCHAEOLOGY Online. Full text of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property Full text of the 1983 Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act

TALES OF A TOMBAROLO

Contributing editor Giovanni Lattanzi interviews a tombarolo (grave robber) who lives near the Etruscan ruins of Cerveteri, west of Rome. ANDREW L. SLAYMAN is an Associate Editor of ARCHAEOLOGY. 1998 by the Archaeological Institute of America
http://www.archaeology.org/9805/abstracts/italy.html

Looting Dispute Artfully Resolved; Museum benefits from deal allowing exquisite works by Italian masters to be shown in America.

By CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT, Times Art Critic
HARTFORD, Conn.--Riveting stories have been emerging in the post-Cold War era about thousands of works of art looted in Europe during World War II. The stories raise tangled questions about how conflicting claims of rightful ownership can be ethically and morally resolved, and happy conclusions have so far been scarce. That's one reason a new exhibition at Connecticut's venerable Wadsworth Atheneum is both welcome and attracting considerable attention. The show, "Caravaggio and His Italian Followers: From the Collections of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Roma," represents the resolution of a 30-year dispute over the rightful ownership of a Florentine Mannerist painting, stolen by Russian soldiers from the Italian Embassy in Berlin during the chaos of the war's final days. The Wadsworth, which innocently acquired Jacopo Zucchi's "The Bath of Bathsheba" (circa 1570) from a Parisian dealer in 1965, agreed to return it to the Italian government; as compensation for Hartford's loss, Italy offered an impressive loan of Baroque paintings from Rome's Barberini and Corsini palaces. The Wadsworth then amplified the loan with a judicious selection of paintings from American collections, including its own. The show, which will not travel, is also noteworthy for its subject. Any opportunity to see multiple examples of the work of Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), who was called Caravaggio after the small town near Milan where he was born, should always be seized without hesitation. Caravaggio is one among that small handful of painters about whom it can be said that, after him, art was not the same again. Part of the excitement of the Wadsworth show is the clarity with which you can see so many other gifted artists of the early 17th century--Carlo Saraceni, Simon Vouet, Jusepe de Ribera, Orazio Gentileschi and his daughter, Artemisia, and more--being stunned by Caravaggio's precedent. Their responses vary: galvanized, traumatized, liberated, humbled. Five paintings by Caravaggio are in the show--two from Rome, one each from museums in Fort Worth and Kansas City, Mo., and, finally, the Wadsworth's own electrifying picture, "The Ecstasy of St. Francis." This last painting starts with the standard composition of a pieta, then spins it into an exquisite moment fusing spiritual refinement with an erotic charge. St. Francis reclines on the grass in a peaceful swoon, as his right thumb and index finger graze the open stigma that marks his chest. His upper torso is gently cradled in the pale white arms of an angel, portrayed as a serenely beautiful young boy. Whether spiritual or carnal, love for Caravaggio is never a remote, imaginary ideal; instead, it's always characterized as a deeply sensuous encounter with the material stuff of the world--such as Francis' fingers grazing the wound. Caravaggio's genius as an artist lies in driving the point home by providing the audience with a similarly delirious, equally sensorial encounter with the material stuff of his own art. "The Ecstasy of St. Francis" was the first Caravaggio acquired by an American museum. The Wadsworth bought it in 1943, after discovering that a 1930 acquisition--a small portrait--thought to be by him was in fact the work of a later, still unattributed French artist. In solving the problem of the looted Zucchi, the museum's current director, Peter C. Sutton, was smart to build on the Wadsworth's own distinguished artistic legacy. The St. Francis picture is emblematic of the museum's small but choice collection of Italian Baroque paintings, begun by the Wadsworth's legendary director, A. Everett "Chick" Austin Jr., at a time when such work was not held in the highest favor. (The show's catalog includes a wonderfully informative essay on how that collection grew, especially in the 1930s and 1940s.) "Caravaggio and His Italian Followers" mixes 10 of the museum's own paintings with the 29 lent from Rome, thus deepening the resonance of the permanent collection for audiences in Hartford. The show is divided into three very full galleries. The small central room houses the five Caravaggios, plus three other closely related paintings. A large gallery to the left focuses on his Roman and Venetian followers, with especially fine examples by Saraceni, Gentileschi, Guercino and others. The large gallery to the right concentrates mostly on his impact in the area around Naples--notably on Spanish emigre Ribera--since, at the end of his life, the hot-tempered Caravaggio was on the lam in southern Italy, after impetuously murdering an opponent in a ballgame. While not as sprawlingly comprehensive as the great 1985 exhibition in New York, "The Age of Caravaggio," the Hartford show is still a rich and provocative survey of a single artist and his enormous influence. Call it a crash course in Caravaggio and his consequences. It also boasts some scholarly coups. One is the juxtaposition of two pictures of St. John the Baptist--one from the Corsini and never before shown in America, the other brought from the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City--which haven't been seen together since they left the artist's studio in about 1604. Caravaggio's earthy naturalism is on vivid display in both examples. The saint, usually portrayed as stoical or haggard, is instead shown here as a sullen young street kid. He's St. John the Slacker. The irreverent bent to these frank, unidealized, highly theatrical depictions of a deeply religious subject finds resonance throughout other works in the show. Take Saraceni's marvelous picture of an otherwise ordinary family fracas, in which the Virgin Mary gently scolds a rambunctious baby Jesus, who is tugging insistently on Grandma's robe. Struggling to get free, St. Anne clutches the wing of a flapping dove as if it were a lowly chicken--surely a first in the history of symbolic depictions of the Holy Ghost! Another coup is the reattribution of a terrific picture of a pretty, flirtatious fortuneteller reading the open palm of a rapt country artisan, while her elderly partner neatly picks the rube's pocket from behind. This classic image, which mingles worldly deceit with artistic trickery, is told in slightly different terms in Caravaggio's magnificent "The Cardsharps," lent by Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum and hanging nearby; once, "The Fortune Teller" too was thought to have been painted by Caravaggio. Since the 1960s it has been firmly attributed to Bartolommeo Manfredi, one of the master's most ardent followers. Now, in preparation for the current exhibition, a newly discovered inscription on the back has revealed that the picture was in fact painted in 1617 by the Frenchman Simon Vouet, making it the first documented work he completed during his sojourn to Rome. Thus does the breadth of Caravaggio's decisive impact grow. One big disappointment for the show was the Barberini's refusal to lend its other Caravaggio, a murderously satisfying picture of a determined Judith calmly hacking off the head of her would-be rapist, the Babylonian general Holofernes, using his own terrible swift sword. You'll have to settle instead for the fine after-the-fact version of the story by Orazio Gentileschi, in which Judith and her maid, having done the deed, hurriedly stuff Holofernes' head into a wicker basket before the general's soldiers stumble on the bloody scene. Or, console yourself with Caravaggio's dark, haunting picture of Narcissus kneeling to gaze longingly at his murky reflection in a pool. The painter depicts him with one hand dipping slowly into the water; it's another sensuous encounter with the material truth of an otherwise elusive image, which also forecasts the imminent drowning of the beautiful youth. That some scholars believe Narcissus might in fact be a symbolic self-portrait only adds to the picture's poignant resonance. "Caravaggio and His Italian Followers" is an especially satisfying resolution to one instance of the problem of looted art. Not only has insightful advantage been taken of the predicament between the Wadsworth Atheneum and the government of Italy, but other museums might also draw two important lessons from its example. First, every situation is unique. And second, an answer might be found by regarding the dilemma not merely as a headache, but as a decisive opportunity. * Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main St., Hartford, Conn., (860) 278-2670, through July 26. Closed Mondays.
Copyright Los Angeles Times

The Fake van Gogh ( js0066@snyflcaa.fingerlakes.edu)

Jon Smith English 101 April 14 1998
The Fake van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh may be the most imitated artist known. His style, because of mental condition, has held the fascination of many people including some would be artists. Many paintings have fallen into the assumption that they may be fake. One of van Gogh's Sunflowers has fallen under this suspicion. Some believe that van Gogh wanted to create a painting that could be sold cheaply, mass produced and the public could have hanging in their homes, so he created the sunflower paintings that everyone knows and sees. Vincent van Gogh had a unique personality. He was extremely depressed and lead a miserable existence because he could not sell any of his works. He was hospitalized, by himself after cutting part of his ear off, before death. Within the seventy days before his death, the magazine Art Newspaper points out he could not have possibly painted the seventy-six oil paintings that were attributed to that period. That means that van Gogh had to paint at least one a day and either start thinking or drawing the next one. He has been forged after death because of his style and popularity. Anyone who wanted to create a painting in van Gogh's style would have a small fortune. With van Gogh's profile, his style, genius, and a high production of art over a fifteen year period has made his art expensive painters after death (Darmon Internet). Van Gogh was able to sell within his lifetime a few select paintings. There have been about 2000 works credited to van Gogh but it is thought to be that van Gogh only sold two paintings during his lifetime (Darmon Internet). However some will say that he sold five or six paintings. That leaves a lot of non-cataloged paintings. Most of his paintings were given to his brother, Theo. Some were traded or given to other artists who liked his work, such as Gauguin. He gave some to friends or to pay off debts. Some paintings were simply discarded. Many of his works were recovered by his family after his death, but many works were sold in flea markets and fairs in the areas he stayed in. Most of the time the museums in Amsterdam rejected these without seriously looking at them. That gives people who want to make money quickly the chance to copy van Gogh, such as Claude-Emile Schuffenecker. He and his brother, Amedee, are thought to have copied van Gogh's sunflowers and some others. The seventh painting of sunflowers has fourteen flowers against a pale green back round. The painting thought to be forgery is the third study of a fourteen flowers and is thought to have been created by Schuffenecker (Graham 10D). Van Gogh's notes and letters do not mention the third study. The notes only mention the first two, one he painted in 1888 and one he painted for Paul Gauguin in 1889. Claude-Emile Schuffenecker was a master Parisian art instructor at Pont Aven school and a frustrated artist who could not make a start in the art world for himself (Graham 10D). Schuffenecker had the perfect opportunity to make a van Gogh. Schuffenecker was a friend of van Gogh and Gauguin. He was hired to restore the original sunflowers painting from 1888. He took months restoring the painting. Each day he brought with him "a box of colours to cover up the holes and glue back flakes of paint". Schuffenecker had the proper color and learned van Gogh's technique to the point of where he could imitate a van Gogh (Rufford Internet). He also owned a van Gogh collection that he could have copied at some point in time. Schuffenecker was known to copy other works by van Gogh. And it is recorded that Schuffenecker and his brother owned the painting in question but Christie's, an art dealership, has the original ownership listed as the van Gogh family's. Yet there is no record of van Gogh's notes in reference to third painting of fourteen flowers, both done in 1888. First he painted twelve flowers then fourteen flowers. He copied both (Papierchik Internet), the second fourteen flowers was for Gauguin. There is no record selling by van Gogh, gift to a person, or other wise of the third painting of fourteen flowers (Papierchik Internet). Yet all bases of an argument should not be placed on entirely on van Gogh's notes. The counter argument of those who believe that this painting is van Gogh's is that basing all argument on his notes and letters to his brother is rather weak. Another point is that he traveled a lot, going from Belgium to England to Paris and so on. It would not be possible to record every ounce of travel or every work that he did. It was probable that he forgot to inform his brother about his travels and his works once in a while. (Papierchik Internet) Yet another aspect is that van Gogh took another painting of sunflowers and merely decided to add a few more flowers. There are no clear answers to the questions of authenticity. At this moment, authenticity remains for the viewer to decide. The authorities haven't made an official judgement of authenticity of the Sunflowers yet.
Works Cited
Darmon, Adrian. "New Turmoil Over van Gogh's Sunflowers." Internet. Yahoo. Available: www.artcult.com/vangogh.htm (4/16/98) Graham, Trey, and David Zimmerman. "A van Gogh or No?" USA Today 28 October 1997: Living 10D. Papierchik, Aaron. "Van Gogh's Sunflowers." Internet. Yahoo. Available: www..artcult.com/vinc.htm (2/17/98) Rufford, Nicholas. "Experts say van Gogh's sunflowers are fake." "A blooming fake?" The Sunday Times 26 October 1997. Internet. Yahoo. Available: www.openface.ca/~vangogh/misc/fakes1.htm (2/6/98)

United States v. Spiegelman (fwd), Claudia Funke ccf6@columbia.edu

Jean Ashton, Director of Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, wishes to post the following announcement to Exlibris.
Claudia Funke Curator of Exhibitions Rare Book and Manuscript Library Columbia University 535 West 114th Street New York, NY 10027 tel: (212) 854-8482 fax: (212) 854-1365 email: ccf6@columbia.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
On April 24, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Daniel Speigelman to 60 months in jail, plus 3 years probation, including 300 days of community service in an adult literacy education program, and restitution to Columbia of an amount not yet determined, but which will include costs of conservation and restoration as well as the market value of manuscripts. The maximum sentence originally agreed upon by the defense and the U.S. Attorney for the theft of $1.3 million dollars worth of books and manuscripts was 37 months. Judge Kaplan was eloquent in his defense of the importance of scholarly materials in libraries and the undiscovered potential they represent. He defended his somewhat unusual decision to depart upwards from the federal guidelines invoked in the plea bargain by emphasizing the harm to scholarship done by such theft and his hope that a severe sentence would act as a deterrent in the future. He issued a 36 page opinion, quoting extensively from the letters sent to him by many of you in the course of this trial. I would like to thank all of you for your concern and interest in this case. Although there will surely be an appeal, the argument for the cultural value of historical materials has been made a permanent part of the court record. We believe an important precedent has been established. We are very grateful for the time and effort many rare book librarians, archivists and dealers spent assisting us. (Stories about the hearing and the sentencing appeared in the New York Times on March 22 and April 25.) We hope to publish both the opinion and the letters supporting our argument at some future date. Please call if you would like further information. In the meantime, you may wish to know that only part of our material has been recovered by the FBI. A complete list of items still missing is available on our website (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/rare/missing). We hope that dissemination of the list will aid in further recovery.
Thank you again,
Jean Ashton, Director
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Columbia University

4,000 library books stolen from garage (By Ann Belser, Post-Gazette Staff Writer )

Friday, May 01, 1998
More than 4,000 library books were stolen from a garage in Fineview. Laura Shelley, the interim director of the Northland Library, said that from 200 to 300 boxes of books had been stored in her garage for the library's annual book sale, which starts at 6 p.m. today. But early last week, when she opened the garage door expecting to see the garage nearly full of boxes, she found it nearly empty. She said she just figured that the library's maintenance workers, who bring the books to her garage to store, had found someplace else to put them. But when she asked about the book storage, they said they had last been in the garage in early April and that it was nearly full of boxes. She said the maintenance crew, unable to believe that someone would steal used books, went back to her garage and found that only 55 boxes of books remained. No one counted the boxes as they were moved into the garage. "The problem is we don't know for sure how many are missing," she said. Once she realized the books were stolen, she reported the theft to the Pittsburgh police and the McCandless police April 23. She said she hasn't called any second-hand book dealers to see if anyone tried to sell books with Northland Library book plates in them. Pittsburgh police acknowledged the theft had been reported but declined to talk about their investigation. Shelley said the McCandless library raised $7,000 last year with the sale. This year, the library will have half as many books to sell. Library volunteers have spent the past two weeks scrounging to make up for the lost books in order to make the sale a success, she said. Shelley said she doesn't know why anyone would take the books. She said they aren't valuable to anyone but the library, which prices them between 50 cents and $4. The books were a combination of those culled from the library's shelves to make room for new volumes and those donated for the book sale. "What we're trying to make sure is that we salvage the book sale," she said. "I'd love to catch the person." Shelley said the books for the annual book sale have been stored in her garage, which was locked, for about 15 years, because the library did not have room for them. There was no sign of forced entry. Shelley, who had been the library's director for 26 years, resigned from the library in October amid questions about missing records on municipal contributions. She said her resignation had nothing to do with the missing records and she has continued to work as interim director until a new director takes over. The new library director, Susan Collins of Utah, is scheduled to start working at Northland May 18. The library serves five North Hills municipalities: Ross, McCandless, Bradford Woods, Franklin Park and Marshall.

TRIBUTES IN DISTRESS

S.F.'s venerable works of art are in serious need of repair Dan Levy, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, May 1, 1998
Standing before the big bronze Buddha in Golden Gate Park the other day, Ami Bowman, a Lake Tahoe ski-lift operator visiting the park with her mother, marveled over the 208-year-old statue's graceful curves and its beatific smile. But Bowman also noticed the seated figure's thin green patina and nicks and pockmarks all over the Buddha's body. ``That is ugly,'' she said, pointing to a big chip in the left knee and the weathered wooden base of the monument. ``That is definitely not good.'' Bowman's amateur assessment is sadly on the mark, according to curators at the San Francisco Art Commission, the agency responsible for maintaining the city's outdoor sculpture and monument collection. While recent fanfare over restoring 123-year-old Lotta's Fountain, the Market Street monument named after the legendary Gold Rush-era actress, briefly focused attention on art preservation and San Francisco's bawdy past, it also highlighted the city's ad hoc approach to restoration projects. ``We've always kind of limped along,'' said Debra Lehane, manager of the civic art collection. ``We just haven't had the resources.'' Consequently, any new pieces for the city's collection won't accepted unless they come with their own upkeep endowment. Still, a lack of maintenance funds has not stopped city art honchos from promoting new pieces for the collection. In the past year, the Art Commission has considered proposals to install a giant foot sculpture at the Embarcadero and a huge stainless steel peace sign in the Panhandle. Both plans provoked sharp reactions from the public, dooming the peace sign and forcing the commission to back off on the foot idea for the time being. But the outpouring of affection for Lotta's Fountain, where crowds still gather every year to mark the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, has persuaded art officials that monuments with connections to San Francisco history and folklore strike a chord with the public -- and provide the best bet for attracting private donors. ``These artworks really give people a sense of continuity and community,'' said Rod Freebairn- Smith, a San Francisco architect and Art Commissioner. ``And having so many of them around the city is one of the things that makes living here so enjoyable.'' With the Lotta phenomenon still fresh, the commission is stepping up a $1.5 million campaign to raise funds for the 39 monuments in Golden Gate Park, which has the single largest concentration of public art in the city. The Buddha statue, cast in 1790 in Tajima, Japan, and donated to the city by Gumps department store in 1949, tops the Art Commission list of most distressed artworks in the park. The two-ton bronze, a favorite attraction in the Japanese Tea Garden, is thought to have major internal structural damage. ``We need to take a serious look at it from the inside out,'' Lehane said. ``There is evidence of the armature failing and the metal fatiguing. Our Buddha is slouching.'' Two other Golden Gate Park landmarks -- ``Pioneer Mother,'' a memento from the 1915 Panama- Pacific International Exposition, and ``Portals of the Past,'' a marble remnant of the 1906 earthquake -- are also on the Art Commission's critical list. Both ``Pioneer Mother,'' located off John F. Kennedy near Cross Over Drive, and ``Portals of the Past,'' situated on the west edge of Lloyd Lake, require structural repair and cleanup work that will cost tens of thousands of dollars, Lehane said. Recently, however, ``Pioneer Mother'' found help from a local antique-collecting club called the Questers, which has pledged $45,000 for a restoration effort. Margo Peterson, a nurse and leader of the Questers, said the group of elderly collectors was attracted to ``Pioneer Mother'' because it is the only monument in the park dedicated to women. The statue depicts a frontier woman standing behind two young children. ``It's amazing how our club, most of them women over 60, and some close to 70 or 80, pulled together,'' Peterson said. ``The `Pioneer Mother' is sick. She looks like the `Phantom of the Opera.' '' Only three other park monuments so far have found private sponsors --a sundial near the Music Concourse and statues of General John Pershing and a old-time baseball player -- but private restoration campaigns are under way in other areas of San Francisco. In St. Francis Wood, the affluent hillside district on the city's west side, homeowners have raised $250,000 to bring the neighborhood's lavish three-level fountain back to life. On Market Street, Jack Wittenmeyer, a Municipal Railway engineer, has conducted a virtual one- man campaign over the past year to fix Samuel's Clock, the vintage 20-foot-tall timepiece near Powell Street. Wittenmeyer said the lighting and electrical systems of the 83- year-old clock, named after a long- gone jewelry store, have been replaced, so it can be illuminated at night. But there is still work to be done on the guts of the project -- repairing the clock's antiquated gears. It will be several months before Market Street pedestrians and commuters hurrying to downtown transit stations can once again rely on it for the correct time, Wittenmeyer said.
1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A23

Famed Florida treasure hunter's coins called fakes (By Ben Iannotta)

04:24 p.m May 01, 1998 Eastern
KEY WEST, Fla., May 1 (Reuters) - An expert has determined 25 gold coins seized from the shop of a famed Florida treasure hunter are fakes, Monroe County State Attorney Kirk Zuelch said on Friday. But state prosecutors said they would need to investigate more before deciding whether to charge Mel Fisher, who is 75 and recently underwent chemotherapy treatment for cancer. The coins, seized from his Key West shop by investigators last week, were flown to San Diego this week, where coin expert Richard Ponterio found all of them to be fake, Zuelch said. Two coins from a dissatisfied customer were also examined and found to be forgeries. The gold is real but the coins ``were not from a Spanish ship or anything like that,'' Zuelch said. Fisher says the coins, which sold for more than $6,000 each, were from a Spanish treasure fleet that sank off the Florida Keys island chain during a 1733 hurricane. He signed certificates of authenticity to be sold with the coins. State archeologist Jim Miller said state records show no sign of gold coins being recovered from any of the 1733 wreck sites surrounding Florida. Fisher said the coins came from waters outside state jurisdiction, which would explain why there is no record of them. Most counterfeit coins are made in a cast, but investigators believe these coins were struck from gold with a metal die or stamp, just as they would have been in the 18th century. Each fake coin contains about $270 worth of gold at today's market value, an investigator said. What gave each of them their purported value was a certificate of authenticity from Fisher saying they were from the 1733 fleet, he said. Fisher, a crusty treasure salvor usually seen with a gold coin dangling from a chain around his neck, is an icon in this tourist haven. He gained international fame in 1985 when his crews found the treasure horde of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a cache of gold, silver and gems valued at $400 million. Zuelch said no arrests were imminent. Investigators were trying to determine who was responsible for the forgery. Fisher has said he bought the coins from Deerfield Beach, Florida, developer Robert Kruse, who bought them from one of Fisher's subcontractors. ``We want to wait and see what the scope of the problem is. We will want to get restitution for all the victims,'' said Mike Barber, chief investigator for the Monroe State Attorney's office. Barber said seven Fisher customers have called his office in the week since the news broke of the alleged fraud. The callers complained of buying coins similar to the fakes. Any charge against Fisher would be theft by misrepresentation, punishable by up to five years in prison, officials said. However, it was unlikely Fisher would serve jail time even if he was charged, state officials said. Florida jail space is usually reserved for violent or repeat offenders. Pat Clyne, a spokesman for Fisher, said it would be hard to trace the coins' origins because many treasure hunters who worked Fisher's 1733 wreck sites in the late 1960s and 1970s are dead.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

The Denney Paper has been updated and is available at:
http://museum-security.org/denney.html

Anthony Denney the well-known photographer and interior designer built up a large collection of modern art during the 1950's and 1960's. A significant part of the collection - worth several million pounds - was lent to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1970. Following Denney's sudden death in Spain in April 1990, 23 pictures were removed from Dallas to France by means of letters signed "Anthony Denney". The pictures were hidden, along with others from the collection, and were subsequently transformed into an apparently bona-fide donation to the City of Toulouse, thereby stripping the Denney estate of most of its movable assets. The case suggests that long term loans to reputable institutions may be less safe than we might suppose and that something needs to be done to increase security and prevent art loans from similar attacks in the future. It highlights the professional responsibility of Museums to establish conclusive proof of ownership before donations are accepted and of never taking sides in a dispute over inheritance. Lending to a Museum places the loan in the public domain. Open access to information about all loans provide the best protection for them. A distributed public register of loan collections accessible via the Internet - Denney Net - might provide a cheap and practical means of improving security and would be a fitting way to remember a gifted designer and photographer and the recambolesque story of his art collection.

From: Antony F Anderson antonya@antonya.ace.co.uk
Subject:

New Art and Law Web Site of interest to Museum staff

All those concerned with museums and cultural heritage may find the Institute of Art and Law web site of interest:
http://www.pipemedia.net/ial/index.htm
Covers all aspects of Art and Law, heritage law and practice, transactions in art, recovering stolen art etc. Site will be of considerable interest to museum staff, lawyers, historians, collectors, dealers etc.
Antony Anderson
antonya@antonya.ace.co.uk
http://www.pipemedia.net/ial/index.htm

New Art and Law Web Site of interest to Museum staff (antonya@antonya.ace.co.uk)

All those concerned with museums and cultural heritage may find the Institute of Art and Law web site of interest: http://www.pipemedia.net/ial/index.htm Covers all aspects of Art and Law, heritage law and practice, transactions in art, recovering stolen art etc. Site will be of considerable interest to museum staff, lawyers, historians, collectors, dealers etc.
Antony Anderson
antonya@antonya.ace.co.uk
http://www.pipemedia.net/ial/index.htm

Painting stolen from Louvre; The painting was cut from its frame

A painting by the 19th century French artist, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, has been stolen from the Louvre in Paris.

The BBC's Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield reports A statement said a thief cut the painting, Chemin De Sèvres, from its frame on Sunday. The painting would be relatively easy to conceal as it measures only 34cm by 49cm. The Louvre was immediately closed and police carried out close body searches of the hundreds of visitors and interrogated staff. They also fingerprinted the frame and glass. Police searched all Louvre visitors in an effort to recover the painting The painting had been in the museum's collection since 1902. Corot, known as "Papa Corot", is best known for his landscapes. The value of this one is not yet known. He painted more than 3,000 pictures and was often imitated and faked. His work helped prepare the way for the Impressionists. He was also known for his generosity - he supported Millet's widow and gave lessons to Camille Pissarro. (The Louvre has recently been expanded. The Louvre, established in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and biggest museums - 5-6 million people visit every year.) The museum's authorities expressed regret for "the inconvenience caused by this theft."

Theft of statue of Helen Keller stumps police (Cleveland)

Sunday, May 03, 1998
Police have reached a dead end in the investigation of the theft of the Helen Keller statue from the Betty Ott Talking Garden for the Blind at Rockefeller Park Greenhouse on E. 80th St. "We have talked to area residents and checked scrap yards and pawnshops," said Cleveland Police Sgt. Jim Davidson. "We are now turning to the Crime Stoppers Program for help." The 3-foot, approximately 100-pound bronze statue is believed to have been taken last weekend. "The park is open from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. seven days a week, so it had to be taken after hours," said Nick Jackson, director of parks, recreation and properties for the city. Only two people are assigned to the park on weekends, so it is not known if the statue was taken Friday, Saturday or Sunday night. "It appears that someone yanked it up from the concrete pedestal with a crowbar," Jackson said. Whoever took the statue also had to scale an 8-foot fence with it. "I would have no idea whether it was a professional job or why anyone would want to take it," Jackson said. The statue, a gift of the Women's Advertising Club, was dedicated in 1965. It was sculpted by I. Alan Sheere, a New Jersey artist. "We are listing the value as $5,000 to $7,000," Jackson said. The statue was stolen in 1972 but recovered undamaged. The statue was returned after requests for information were made, Jackson said. Information about this theft also would be appreciated, he said. Radio personality Betty Ott developed the garden. In 1992, the Women's City Club rededicated the garden and named it in memory of Ott.

From: KAKAVIATOS Panos Panos.KAKAVIATOS@coe.fr
To: "'securma@xs4all.nl'" securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

illicit art trade

Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 11:39:01 +0200
Dear Sir or Madam,
I work at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and write a newsletter for journalists who cover the organisation's work. Could you please help me with statistics regarding stolen art in Europe. I have read that, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the illicit art trade has increased on a regular basis. Are there any statistics to back this trend up?
Our newsletter web site is www.coe.fr/europa40. I am writing this article as our Parliamentary Assembly meets later this month to debate the Unidroit Convention.
Thanks very much for your attention.
Sincerely,
Panos Kakaviatos

Your message will be forwarded to the Museum Security Mailinglist. Regarding statistics I advice you to get in touch with Interpol. On the Organizations page of our website you will find links to organizations that assemble reports of stolen cultural property.
Regards,
Ton Cremers

From: Jack Watts firesafe@middlebury.net
Subject: [Fire Safe Heritage]:

Electrical Fires (firesafe@middlebury.net)

A new (to the US) electrical device may be of significance in preventing electrical fires in historic buildings. I am looking into this and will try to post relevant information as it is gleaned. Comments, queries, and suggestions are welcome. An Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) is a device intended to provide protection from the effects of arc faults by recognizing characteristics unique to arcing and by functioning to de-energize the circuit when an arc fault is detected.
1. Apparently most electrical fires are caused by arc faults.
2. Apparently most electrical fires occur in buildings more than 20 years old.
3. ACFIs are designed to replace standard 15 and 20 amp circuit breakers.
4. Cost is estimated at $25-50 more than standard circuit breaker.
5. European electrical systems have long been protected by residual current detectors (RCDs).
-- Jack Watts
-------------------------------------------------------------
John M. Watts, Jr., Ph.D., Director
Fire Safety Institute, P.O. Box 674, Middlebury, VT 05753 USA
voice/fax: (802) 462-2663 email: firesafe@middlebury.net
URL: http://www.middlebury.net/firesafe/
-------------------------------------------------------------

From: "W. E. Sisson" wsisson@worldnet.att.net
Subject:

Re: -stolen artwork story (wsisson@worldnet.att.net)

Dear Maureen Spurr & Museum Security.
There is no "standard" practice when a claim is paid for a stolen art object which reappears. Each insurance contract is different.
The first consideration is Deductible Reimbursement. If a piece is recovered and the individual did not want it back, most companies would not reimburse their policyholder's deductible (which in many cases is tens-of-thousands of dollars). Or sometimes the insurance company will not reimburse the insured until the company is first "made whole" again. There is only one policy that I have found that reimburses the insured first for the deductible in the event of any recovery by the company ... that policy is THE ANSWER ART PROGRAM. Before the company retains ANY of the recovery, the insured is paid first!
Not only that, but some companies do not clearly spell out whether or not the insured has the right to repurchase the recovered object from the insurance company. Some companies say they will sell it back for the loss PLUS THEIR RECOVERY EXPENSES!!
Example: An art object of $100,000 is stolen. The insurance company pays the insured $90,000 (the value minus a $10,000 Deductible). The piece is recovered in Japan. A $50,000 ransom is paid as well as $15,000 in foreign shipment expenses. Most unscrupulous companies would charge the insured $155,000 to repurchase their fine art object!
Not so with HH Sisson The Answer -- the insured is given the FIRST CHOICE of repurchasing the art object for the paid loss only -- in this case $90,000!
Look how important this is. Two policies which cost roughly the same amount of premium a year, and one could rob the insured of an additional $65,0000!
For more information contact:
HH SISSON THE ANSWER
One Exeter Plaza
Boston, MA 02116
617-266-4100 Fax 617-266-7220
Email: theanswer@hhsisson.com

The Louvre robbed again; this time of an Impressionist

Camille Corot's 'Sevres Road' was stolen Sunday from the Louvre   May 4, 1998
Web posted at: 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT)
PARIS (AP) -- Officials at the Louvre were examining security measures Monday after a thief stole a $1.3 million painting by Camille Corot from a room without TV surveillance. The theft was the second at the sprawling Paris museum this year. "But there's no magic wand" to immediately improve security, spokesman Christophe Monin said Monday, noting that a lack of funding prevented the famed museum from putting TV cameras in every room. Police questioned four guards and a curator Monday but failed to turn up any clues, according to police sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Police believe that someone who collects 19th century Impressionist works may have directed the thief to steal the painting, the sources said. Although the French government has spent about $1 billion renovating the Louvre, a lack of money for guards forces the museum to keep up to 20 percent of its collections closed to the public, Monin said. About 300 guards are posted throughout the museum, which handles up to 30,000 visitors on any given Sunday. "The Louvre is fragile, and that's all," Louvre director Pierre Rosenberg told Europe 1 Radio Monday. But former Culture Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said he was stunned by Rosenberg's "fatalism." "Must we wait for `Winged Victory" to be stolen before getting a tough reaction from the (Louvre's) head?" Douste-Blazy told French Radio. Visitor traffic through the Louvre has increased steadily in recent years, following a stylish overhaul by architect I.M. Pei and the creation of an underground shopping mall nearby.

Visitors temporarily trapped, searched
Tourists were temporarily trapped inside the Louvre Sunday when a guard discovered Corot's "Sevres Road" was missing. Officials quickly shut the museum and police searched hundreds of exiting visitors. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot was a 19th century French artist known for his landscapes. The thief made off with the oil painting by removing pegs from behind the frame. Police took fingerprints from the frame and its protective glass. Earlier reports said the painting had been cut from its frame. The painting, which measures 13 inches by 19 inches, was not insured. However, it was valued at $1.3 million when it went on display in 1996 at The Metropolitan Museum in New York. In early January, a Greek stele engraved with inscriptions dating to the fourth century B.C. was lifted -- despite camera surveillance -- from the newly refurbished Richelieu wing housing Greek antiquities. It has not been recovered. The Louvre's most famous theft occurred in 1911, when a patriotic Italian house painter stole Leonard Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," saying he planned to return it to Italy. The work was recovered two years later.
Copyright 1998   The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Gates buys Homer painting for $30 million (San Jose Mercury News)

New York Times
Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. chairman, has paid more than $30 million for the last major seascape by Winslow Homer left in private hands, setting what is by far the record price for an American painting, experts in the art world familiar with the transaction said Monday. The purchase catapults American fine art into the same financial stratosphere as European paintings. The price for the seascape is nearly three times the record paid for an American painting, which was set two years ago when ``Cashmere,'' by John Singer Sargent, sold for $11.1 million at Sotheby's. Neither Gates' art adviser nor the public relations company in Seattle that handles his affairs would confirm the purchase. But several experts in American paintings said Gates bought ``Lost on the Grand Banks'' at a recent private sale shrouded in secrecy. The oil painting is a dramatic image from 1885 of two fishermen in a choppy sea peering over the side of their small boat. Gates has acquired several American paantings in the last two years. But his most public art purchase was the Codex Leicester, a 72-page manuscript compiled by Leonardo da Vinci between 1506 and 1510, for which he paid $30.8 million. The seller of the Homer, John Spoor Broome, a businessman from Southern California, bought the artwork from his grandmother in the 1940s and said that he loved the painting and was ``deeply moved by it even as a child.'' Broome would not confirm the sales price or that Gates was the buyer, but he did say that he sold the work. ``I'm 80 years old,'' he said. ``It's time to let go.'' For years dealers and collectors have been pleading with Broome to sell his Homer. One New York City dealer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he offered Broome $10 million for the painting in 1987. Another painting expert said that in 1990 Broome was offered $12 million by Wendell Cherry, the collector and co-founder of the health-care company Humana, who died in 1991. But Broom wanted at least $18 million, the painting expert said. ``Though the sale price will probably give any seller of an American painting an inflated perception of value, in reality the importance of `Lost on the Grand Banks' puts it in another dimension,'' said Vance Jordan, a dealer in American paintings. ``It bears little relationship to other 19th-century paintings now on the market.'' Homer's seascapes are considered among the most desirable of the artist's oeuvre, and few ever come on the market. ``Lost on the Grand Banks'' is not only large -- nearly 32 inches tall and 50 inches wide -- but considered a powerfully rendered image.

Armenia hands back Soviet army war booty to Germany

12:18 p.m. May 04, 1998 Eastern
BONN, May 4 (Reuters) - Armenia on Monday handed back to Germany hundreds of precious books, dating back as far as the 11th century, which had been taken away by Soviet forces in the aftermath of World War Two. Vardan Oskanyan, the former Soviet republic's foreign minister, presented around 570 books to his German counterpart Klaus Kinkel at a ceremony in Bonn. The German Foreign Ministry said the books included rare works on theology and also musical manuscripts by Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. Most originally came from libraries in Bremen, Hamburg and Luebeck but were stored underground in the east of what was then German territory to protect them from bombing raids. German officials say Soviet troops discovered the books and shipped them back to Leningrad in 1946. From there, they were passed on to an academic library in Yerevan. Kinkel described Armenia's gesture as a ``great boost'' for bilateral relations and said he hoped it would be a signal to other countries which still have German cultural treasures as a result of the war. Russia is widely believed to have the lion's share of such treasures but efforts to get Moscow to hand them back have met with little success so far. The Russian parliament has passed a law blocking the return of the artefacts, which it regards as compensation for Russia's suffering during the war. Russia's constitutional court is now examining the law at the request of President Boris Yeltsin to see if it violates Moscow's international commitments. The court has said it will need most of this year to reach a decision.


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